We are not slaves to our first instinctual response.
If we were, instances of rape and sexual harassment would be orders of
magnitude higher than what they are now.
We consciously restrain ourselves from doing things all the time.
What you describe (and I don't dispute) sounds like the instinctual response
gets sent to the parts of the brain involved in consciousness, and evaluated
(somewhat) logically before action - if time permits.
I can think of at least two instances I did things I started doing before I was
consciously aware of my actions - both involved punching someone I knew in the
face/ hitting them in the face with a handheld flashlight...
When its late at night, you come home to a dark and quiet house, and someone
leaps out at you as you come around the corner...
or:
You are out camping in the woods, its late at night, and you are returning to
camp after relieving yourself and someone rushes at you from behind a tree....
You cannot be held accountable for your actions.
(You can however call your buddies "idiots" for trying such stupid pranks - but
I think the blood coming out of their nose was sufficient).
But that is entirely different than... oh, I don't know... strapping razor
blades on to the feet of two roosters, and watching them fight to the death for
your entertainment.
You can't blame that on an unconscious instinctual behavior that never got
evaluated by the conscious mind.
--- On Thu, 3/17/11, Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au> wrote:
> From: Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>
> Subject: Re: It was only a matter of time
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Date: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 3:06 PM
> On Fri, Mar 18th, 2011 at 8:43 AM,
> Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Ok, but you can refrain from killing a small animal. A
> cat/dog/orca
> > apparently cannot choose between doing so nor not.
> They behave
> > instinctively in a greater measure than us.
>
> Most of human behaviour is driven by the non-conscious
> parts of the brain. This is why criminal
> profiling is use
lways 100% conscious of our decisions
> and actions, and had full control over them, then such
> behavioural predictive measures would be
> useless.
>
> Brain studies have shown that many of our decisions are
> made before we are consciously aware of
> them, and that the brain simply delays acting on those
> decisions until it has first sent the intention
> to the parts of our brain that produce conscious thought.
> Because we seem to become aware of the
> decision before acting on it, we assume cause-and-effect
> and think we consciously made that
> decision. In reality our brain is simply fooling us into
> believing in the illusion of free will.
> http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision
>
> Humans are slaves to instinct as much as any other species.
> Should we torture ourselves with a
> sense of higher responsibility that our physiology doesn't
> allow us to accomplish?
>
> --
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> Dann Pigdon
> Spatial Data Analyst
> Australian Dinosaurs
> Melbourne, Australia
> http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
> _____________________________________________________________
>
>